


Sudden Silence

by marshmallowsweetheart



Category: Naruto, The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 22:36:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17191562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshmallowsweetheart/pseuds/marshmallowsweetheart
Summary: James doesn't know anything about his soulmate except that they don't speak English. His mysterious new coworker speaks English just fine, but he still can't seem to get him off his mind.





	Sudden Silence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myriadus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/myriadus/gifts).



There are a lot of things that James Wilson was prepared for. Tattoos, for one thing. Calligraphy. Stray marks. Paint. Sharpie. Even scars, honesty.

But here he is, sixteen years old, watching black ink blossom across his skin for the first time, and he realizes he wasn’t prepared for Japanese.

He thinks it’s Japanese, after googling “asian languages” and clicking ‘images’. The characters seem to line up the way they should, not quite as complex looking as Mandarin and not as spaced out as Korean, but without a Japanese keyboard or the ability to understand pictographic characters he can’t tell what it says. 

He writes ‘what?’ on his own skin with a ballpoint pen, and the only reply he gets is to see the characters smudge like they were wiped and then wash away.

***

James is twenty-two, and Los Angeles is a bigger city than he ever could have imagined or, really, even wanted. His apartment isn’t bad, but it isn’t exactly good either, and the traffic is terrible in a way that no traffic should ever have to be. Even six months in, he’s still unsure about the decision to move, but he’d assured his mom that LA would have plenty of opportunities and that she shouldn’t worry about him all the way in Pennsylvania, and damned if he was about to come running home across the country just so that she could tell him that she was right. She’d done it enough over the phone, the first month or so when he’d been missing her the most, and then James had remembered that he thrives on spite and he’d made it his goal to succeed. 

He has a job at a “gourmet starbucks”, which is just a starbucks that serves special ice cream lattes and pays an hourly rate with two digits, and it’s not the job he plans to keep but it pays the bills on his apartment with enough left over that he can start an internship sometime soon. The first couple months, he works with Aleks, and as his most frequent coworker he quickly becomes James’ first and only friend.

Aleks then exposes him to Brett, who’s all dry wit and seems to know how to get under Aleks’ skin even better than James does, and they very quickly form a mutual respect once Brett stun guns himself in the leg and James drinks–well, drinks is a strong word–a blend of protein milk and mealworms. 

Then Aleks gets a better job, one that pays him more and doesn’t require him to smell like coffee 24/7, and when he leaves Trevor and Aron take his place. It’s shocking, really, how every new employee at this liquid sugar store seems to fit seamlessly into the group they’re forming, but within a couple weeks Aron moves away and Trevor springs for amateur photography and Jakob and Asher take their place on the morning shift.

And then, two months later, Jakob swaps to the night shift, Asher joins Trevor, and James gets promoted to manager before he finds himself leaning against the counter at 5:30 AM, staring at a Japanese man with a headband and and a nametag that says ‘Sasuke Uchiha’. 

He’s got pin straight black hair, cut choppily as if he’s done it himself, and he stands just a little shorter than James. Giving him the onceover, the first things James notices are the wristbands, and the second is the way he stands, as if he’s ready to move in any direction at any time. He’s skinny, but muscular, and he’s got to be around James’ age but there’s a certain maturity about him that makes him seem much older.

They stare for a while, and part of it is the fact that James got up at five in the morning to open, and part of it is the fact that past a a basic greeting this new guy hasn’t spoken once.

“So how do you say that?” James asks eventually, and maybe he’s just not a morning person, but ‘Sasuke’ only stares for a moment or so.

 

“Sa-su-ke,” he eventually says, sounding it out with something that’s almost contempt, and James was going to sigh but he’s caught off guard by the way that this new guy’s voice sounds. Not what he’s putting into it, probably, but…it rings a bell, of some kind, only James can’t tell what.

“Welcome to hell,” he says, instead of thinking about that, and he whips a washcloth off the counter and at Sasuke. He catches it, unfazed, and James doesn’t know why Sasuke’s composure annoys him, but it does. “You’re new, you scrub the tables. When that’s done, work the register until the hospital crowd stops coming in, and then I’ll show you how to use the machines. Until then…” James yawns. “Don’t fucking bother me.”

***

Sasuke’s only been working there for a few hours, but James can’t stop stealing glances at him. Sasuke is definitely attractive, but 5’9” with a permanent bored look has never exactly been James’ type, and he can’t figure out why he’s so interested. But he is, and he keeps noticing things that he’d never care about in anyone else. Sasuke moves almost a little too smoothly, like a dancer, and he’s got abnormally fast reflexes. He always keeps his wrists covered. He hasn’t spilled any coffee on anyone yet, and James gets the feeling that if he did spill it, he wouldn’t care all that much. Everything only adds to the weird air of mystery surrounding him.

God, ‘air of mystery’, he sounds like a fucking author with a crush and that’s not what this is. He’s curious, is all. That’s it. This person is new, and he does things a little weirdly, and James hasn’t seen it before so he’s curious and if he’s going to dissect that it won’t be now.

James tells himself that until he’s distracted by Aleks coming in before work. He ushers Sasuke away from the register, because Aleks is a hassle to deal with on his best days, and if James is there Aleks isn’t going to let him hear the end of ignoring him at the register anyway. Sasuke doesn’t say anything, just nods and goes to make a latte or something–and James was kind of shocked at how quickly he picked up that particular skill, he’d said he hadn’t done it before, but he’d learned pretty fast how to foam milk without getting it everywhere and how not to overtamp the espresso machine–and maybe James was just an idiot but it had definitely taken him a couple days to master the production of caffeine.

“Are you going to take my order, or are you too busy staring at that new guy?” Aleks asks, and James snaps his attention to the bottle blonde standing at the counter.

“I wasn’t–” he starts, but the look on Aleks’ face tells him that he’s either explaining himself, getting relentlessly teased, or both, so he just sighs. “He just looks kinda familiar, is all, stop giving me that look, you fucker.”

Aleks pauses for a moment, and the slow smile on his face is all James needs to see.

“That’s fucked up–”

“Not Aron familiar, you asshole, what the fuck do you want from this stupid hipster fucking Starbucks,” James groans, and Aleks only laughs. He doesn’t order, just offers his card, but that’s okay because if James didn’t know what he wanted by now he’d be a really pathetic friend. 

He writes russian asshole on the cup, and then gets back to actually making coffee while Sasuke takes his spot at the register. It’s a hard battle not to yell cocksucker instead of grande white chocolate mocha, but he manages, and if he gets back to stealing glimpses of the new guy once he’s gone then there’s no one around who cares enough to notice.

***

Sasuke sticks around, and James shouldn’t be surprised because this is his job, but it still seems strange for whatever reason. Like ‘coworker’ isn’t the word he should be using to describe him. Either way, within the week, he’s working more efficiently than Jakob ever did, and probably poisoning less customers, and James can’t deny the efficiency he’s brought. His role in the store is already growing, and with it for some stupid reason, James’ interest in him.

There’s a lot he didn’t notice on the first day. Sasuke takes care with each individual order, as if he thinks they’re important beyond the scope of the job, and at one point James catches him looking around after he messes up a name and James quickly looks away. When he peeks again, there’s a small smirk on Sasuke’s face, and James can’t fight the smile coming to his own.

James’ initial fascination just…doesn’t wear off. It’s stupid, and Aleks notices it every time, and because he has no morals he points it out to Brett, and while he sternly denies their suspicions that it’s a crush, it’s like he sees something new every time he looks over. By Friday, he’s almost disappointed for his days off, and he doesn’t get it. He hadn’t cared half as much about Trevor or Jakob or even Aleks, but something about this guy just…draws him closer. Pulls his eyes away from whatever he’s doing and into some bullshit people-watching session where there’s only one person being watched.

He can’t help it. He wants to, but he can’t. He finds himself noticing the little things, even if they’re the same little things he’s noticed time and time again. How he moves, the way his bangs are cut. The way he asks for someone’s name. But this is not a crush, so he’s resigned himself to finding out as much as he can just by watching his new coworker and hopefully whatever this is–not a crush–will stop.

***

“Taste my wrath, James,” Brett calls, laughing in that little, stupid, infuriating way of his, and James almost throws his controller across the room.

“Fuck off,” he yells as he falls off the level for the fifth fucking time, and the moment the race ends he drops the controller in favor of leaning back with his head in his hands. “I don’t wanna play this game anymore.”

“You’re just a sore fucking loser,” Brett laughs, and fuck Brett because he’s got first in the Prix. 

“Wasn’t me. That was Trevor.” James still hasn’t moved, but he’s more than happy to move the blame. 

 

“Dude, what?” Trevor asks, but before he can get an answer James stands up and stretches, going to the kitchen and opening the fridge. 

“Oh, dude, get me a Sprite,” Aleks calls, and he’s second in the prix so fuck him too, actually. 

“No. I’m done with your games.” He comes back with a shitty ten ounce can of Sprite anyway, but immediately regrets it when he sees the look on Aleks’ face.

“If you’re done with the game, we could just talk about your fuckin’ boner for that new guy–”   
James doesn’t let him get far. 

“It’s not a boner, you fucker, first of all, and his name is Sasuke.” It’s too immediate, and there’s just a little too much aggression in it, and Aleks only leans back with his eyebrows raised. Trevor, from across the room, does the opposite, and James can feel the attention in the room shift entirely to him god damn it.

“I mean, I’m not, uh, well versed in these subjects, but–” 

“Shut the fuck up, Trevor, you can’t listen to this conversation,” James says, throwing a throw pillow at him and then using the other one to cover his face when Brett starts in. 

“You’ve been talking about him in the groupchat for like, a week, dude,” he says, and James only groans. “Shut up, you baby. It’s a crush.”

“He’s interesting,” James moans, and Brett just laughs.

“I know a lot of interesting people. You didn’t stare at any of them for 8 hours a day.”

“If I had to stare at you for 8 hours a day I’d kill myself.” 

“So you like staring at him.” God, Brett’s an asshole sometimes. James pulls away the pillow and starts to tell him that, but something on his face must give something away because Brett throws his hands up before he can. “Jesus, okay, calm down,” he laughs, and James just stares for a moment before pulling the pillow back over his face and groaning again.

***

They drop it, and James thinks it’s because they can tell they’re pushing something and he doesn’t like that there’s something there to push. At the same time, his whatever-this-is with Sasuke isn’t going away, and might even be getting worse, and judging by the look Aleks gave him Monday morning, if he doesn’t acknowledge it soon his friends are going to kill him.

Nothing comes to a head until Wednesday morning, where one of them is greeted by a platinum blonde and for the first time in two weeks it isn’t James. 

“Sasuke!” Someone calls, and both their heads turn at the sound. James quickly looks back to his customer at the register, but his ears are open to the conversation going on beside him. 

“Why did you come?” Sasuke says, and that one sentence holds more emotion than James has ever heard from him.

 

“Because you’re my friend, idiot,” the blonde replies, and then there’s a scoff and a laugh. 

“I’m an adult–”

“I wanted to see how you were doing,” the blonde says, and it sounds…more subdued. Serious. There’s a moment where they don’t speak, and it’s filled by the sound of Sasuke turning on the ice machine. Then it goes off, and one of them sighs.

“I’m fine, Naruto.” Sasuke sounds tired, but not…ungrateful, and when James sneaks a look over he can see ‘Naruto’ smiling slightly. 

“Good.” Apparently that’s all he needed to hear, because he then starts in on a coffee order, and the look of pure exasperation on Sasuke’s face is enough to make James stifle a laugh. 

“Go to the register and order like a normal person, you loser,” he says, and Naruto makes a thoughtful sound for a moment.

“Fine,” he says, and James can see a flurry of motion out of the corner of his eye. 

“Naruto–” 

“This is payment, what kind of a friend won’t even make his friend a coffee, it’s a ransom headband–”

James doesn’t know what’s going on, but it’s getting closer and closer to him, and he turns to look just in time–

For Sasuke to spill hot coffee on him while trying to reach over at whatever Naruto’s got in his hand and time seems to stop.

He should be angry, probably, but really it isn’t hot enough to bu–okay, yeah, it’s hot enough to burn, but for some reason he doesn’t care. The sliver of skin where their arms brushed against each other feel electrified, as if they’re burning with black flames, and James doesn’t know why he chose black ones but it just seems to fit.

Sasuke’s eyes widen, and then meet his, and then for one long, slow moment, the world around them fades away, and all James can really focus on is the fact that Sasuke is pressed against him, burning and electric, and that he doesn’t ever want this moment to end.

And then it ends, and the seconds fade from minutes back to seconds again, and when Sasuke pulls away James is left holding the cloth away from his skin so that his torso doesn’t get burned too badly.

Sasuke just stands there, with his eyes wide and a mostly empty coffee cup in his hands, and for a moment everything is silent. And then Naruto jumps in with an obscene amount of concern for someone that he’s never met. 

“Are you okay?” He asks, reaching across the counter with some napkins and dropping Sasuke’s headband next to the register. Sasuke doesn’t reach for it, still just standing there, and James is still dazed enough that it takes him a moment to reply. 

“Wh–oh, no, yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I guess, I’ll just…” He stops. “I’ll just need a new shirt or something, yeah,” and he can tell from the way Sasuke relaxes slightly that he was expected a whole lot more anger. Well, James can’t really blame him, considering how he is normally, but it’s really hard to be angry when…well, when it’s Sasuke.

It’s only hard for James, though. 

“Sasuke!” Naruto practically yells, and Sasuke jumps some, finally blinking away that deer-in-the-headlights look. “You have to take him to get a new shirt.”

“Woah, wait a minute, it’s really fine–” James tries, but neither of them are listening. They seem to be having a silent conversation, and it looks like Naruto’s winning.

“Fine,” Sasuke finally concedes, and then turns to James. “After work?” He asks, and he’s not meeting James’ eyes, but he’s not sounding as…sullen as James had expected him to. 

Sasuke looks almost shy, and it’s…really cute. James realizes that he’d been staring for a moment, and shakes it away. 

“I–yeah, after work, that’s…fine…” He says, and then he has to turn away to help the next customer because the line is getting longer and also if he lingers in that moment any longer he’ll combust and fuck, fuck, fuck it’s definitely a crush.

(“I have a date”, he texts in the groupchat next time he gets a break, and then, “I’m fucked.”

He looks at his arms, and the rest of his body. Bare as they’ve always been.

Fuck.)


End file.
